Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III recently met with members of the American business community and challenged them to actively participate in the Duterte administration’s massive infrastructure initiative dubbed “Build, Build, Build.”

Members of the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), led by its president-CEO Alexander Feldman, and senior vice president Ambassador Michael Michalak, had made a courtesy call with the secretary in Manila.

Dominguez particularly noted the US business delegation expressed interest in the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

“Now is a good time to check if there has been any real participation from you in our ‘Build, Build, Build’ projects,” Dominguez told members of the (USABC), which include some of America’s top infrastructure and engineering firms.

Dominguez also pointed out, however, that the US government has also been reluctant in providing compact assistance to the Philippines under the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC).

He recalled that the compact assistance from MCC of about $200 million would have helped improve infrastructure in the eastern coast of Luzon, but the Philippines “for one reason or another, didn’t make the cut.”

“Fortunately, South Korea stepped up with five times the amount,” said Dominguez, referring to South Korea’s commitment of $1 billion official development assistance to the Philippines.